Scott Linehan: It’s our job to prove Troy Aikman wrong

Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones called Troy Aikman an “armchair quarterback” after the Hall of Fame quarterback criticized his former team’s creativity on offense. The Cowboys’ play caller, Scott Linehan, wasn’t about to go that far, saying Aikman is entitled to his opinion.

“People have their own opinions,” Linehan said, via Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News. “It’s hard to be super creative when you’re having loss-yardage plays, to be honest with you. But I thought we had some really good stuff for the game that we couldn’t use. But he’s entitled to whatever opinion he has about that. It’s our job to go out and show him that we have some stuff that maybe he’ll be impressed with.”

Nine of the Cowboys’ 64 plays resulted in lost yardage, including six sacks. They had 11 plays gain no yardage, including 10 incompletions.

The Cowboys managed only 230 yards, including 170 passing yards, in the season-opening loss to the Panthers. It marked the seventh time in the past nine games, dating to last season, that Dallas has thrown for fewer than 200 yards.

The Cowboys, who scored eight points against the Panthers, have scored a total of 46 points in their past four games.

“Certainly if an offense doesn’t put up a lot of points there’s going to be criticism towards how we played,” Linehan said. “We accept that and take on the challenge that we’re going to go out and play much better the next game.”